Toni Morrison’s ‘Recitatif’

Race, class, and humanity, as short story

I am late to reading Toni Morrison’s only short story, “Recitatif.” The story was published in 1983 and at that time I was too young to have heard of Morrison anyway.

As I began reading her novels over the year, it never dawned on me she had tried the classic short form of fiction — the short story. I wish she had done more of these.

The story is one of Twyla and Roberta, two girls who meet at an orphanage. They form a bond at the orphanage and Twyla then relates the story of a series of encounters between the two after they leave the orphanage.

As many have written, the story is a racial story. Morrison is seeking to comment on racism but is intentionally elusive on which girl (woman) is Black and which one is White. There are class issues on display here but mostly the age old question of our shared humanity.

Twyla tells the story but that doesn’t provide any insight as to the race of the women. They both have the ordinary challenges of human beings through the journey of a life.

But, through the various encounters the challenge to the reader is to just accept the story as a story and not worry about who is Black and who is White. And that’s the point.

We bring ourselves to every story we encounter or every poem. In a certain way, Morrison is doing what Roland Barthes does in his writing. In other words, when Morrison wrote this she let go of it. It is on the reader. The author is dead.

Yet, Morrison is trying to tempt the reader to do that and the struggle is to don’t take the bait. I was lucky. I didn’t read the Zadie Smith introduction so I never was sucked into that concept until after I read the story and then Smith’s intro.

I personally felt that Twyla is the white woman and Roberta is the black woman because of the names after the fact. But, I have met a white woman named Roberta and a black woman named Twyla.

I have lived and worked in close proximity to people of various economic and social classes. My many years as a lawyer for the poor prepared me for most scenarios.

I am familiar with individuals suffering from mental illnesses. The cultural codes didn’t throw me off either. One thing is correct about what Morrison is doing is the general human characteristics we assign to one another and to others are mostly ancedotal. There are is more to us than tiny moments of interaction.

I won’t go deep into the details but the story is a shining moment for Morrison. There is an online version for those of you who want to read the story right away. I urge you to click the link and read it.

Here it is: RECITATIF

Thanks for reading, enjoy, and feel free to comment —